Beauty abounds across Xinshe's dazzling Sea of Flowers

Article by Kevin from Bestteam
Translated by Sho Huang

The popular annual Xinshe Sea of Flowers event will be taking place for the sixth time as the Republic of China (Taiwan) celebrates its centennial this year. This year, the Seed and Seedling Management Department of the Executive Yuan's Council of Agriculture, the Taichung city government and farmers associations of the city's Xinshe, Dongshi, Shigang, Heping, Taiping and Dajia districts have collaborated closely to consolidate local resources and promote this event.

As always, all the hard work and diligent efforts to cultivate and care for Xinshe's flowers have borne a vividly-beautiful reward--fields of dazzling flowers. The Xinshe Sea of Flowers event is the largest and best-known recreational agriculture event of its kind in Taiwan and each year it attracts over a million visitors, drawn to a seemingly endless panorama of colorful flowers, which also helps boost the local businesses and the overall economy. Its steady growth has made Xinshe a successful role model when it comes to reviving local agricultural and business industries.

Each year, organizers of the Xinshe Sea of Flowers event put in a lot of thought into the presentation of this gorgeous event. Specially-themed exhibitions are designed according to the rural district's unique attributes. Stands selling local agricultural specialties, local cuisine and many other interesting items are also set up against the natural backdrop of flower fields. In addition, entertaining performances will take place at the site, and creative in-depth tours that include visits to recreational farms and stays at local scenic guesthouses will also be available. With all this, this late-autumn festival is a highly anticipated public event that heralds the imminent arrival of winter.

To celebrate the ROC's 100th birthday, Taichung's 2nd 'Carpet of Flowers' Festival and the Xinshe Sea of Flowers events will be combined this year. Special giant patterns composed of flowers are being designed as creative highlights in this significant year. The event will also closely follow the "Quality Agriculture" policies being promoted by Executive Yuan's Council of Agriculture, with a core focus being the development of an "Excellent, Healthy, LOHAS" agricultural industry and cultivation of "Energetic, Healthy and Happy" lifestyles.

Event Goals
1. Attract Crowds and Create Economic Opportunities
It is hoped that this event will help boost the relationship between the creative farming industry and recreational entertainment sector by developing the following special programs--distinctive agricultural products, unique local cuisine, scenic flower tours, agricultural technology forums, various themed activities and exhibitions, conversion of recreational farmhouses into guesthouses and restaurants, tourist fruit-picking activities, tourism-attraction scenic sites and package tours. Over the past few years, such events have had encouraging results and it is hoped that they will continue to draw even more visitors and create more business opportunities. This in turn has a positive economic impact that helps raise local residents' living standards.

2. Creative Interaction Platform
The designs of themed exhibitions at the event and participation by government organizations have been among the most important highlights of the Xinshe Sea of Flowers event. Each agency comes up with its own creative ideas to present its theme and/or exhibit stands to visitors. This makes it an ideal opportunity for public servants to interact with citizens, as well as demonstrate agencies' team spirit and direction.

Successful, creative examples of this include "Cinderella" by the Seed and Seedling Management Department, "Happy Farming Villages" by the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau Taichung Office and "Amu Forest" by the Dongshih Forest District Office of the Forest Bureau. These all fulfilled their missions by respectively introducing and promoting Cinderella shoe-shaped orchids, presenting prosperous farming villages, and promoting sustainable forest management. Thus, visitors get the chance to relate each agency's contributions to the overall aim of "challenging the unknown and broadening horizons".

3. LOHAS Branding
The theme of this year's Xinshe Sea of Flowers event is "Energetic and Colorful Moods". Besides the usual specially-themed exhibitions, what makes this year even more attractive is cooperation with the Taichung 2nd Flower Carpet Festival. This makes the scale and variety broader than ever, and is expected to have a tremendous positive economic impact and boost promotions of Xinshe's local agricultural products and recreational options. Continuing the success of previous years, the Xinshe Sea of Flowers event is this year more than ready to once again be a triumph with its unique LOHAS charm.

Event Time
The event opens on Nov. 12 (Sat.) and ends on Dec. 11, 2011 (Sun.) for a total of five weekends and 30 days. Flower display sections, all themed exhibitions and the recreational farming exhibition will be open this entire period. On the weekends during the event period--a total of 10 days--a variety of performances will be specially held in flower display sections.

Following are programs for this year's Xinshe Sea of Flowers event:
1. Happy Farming Exhibition (Xinshe Community Recreational Farming Development Association)
Exhibition Theme: The unique character of 53 different shops from the Xinshe Community Recreational Farming Development Association will be presented with natural and flower-related elements. Tourism and travel-related information about Japan's Biei and Furano will also be available here.
Coupons and Gifts: Coupons, vouchers, and gift and souvenir certificates from the above shops will be given out here.

2. Cinderella Exhibition (Seed and Seedling Management Department)
Exhibition Theme: Taiwan Cinderella Orchids are not common on the market, and are ranked fourth for popularity right after Butterfly Orchids, Epigeneium Orchids and Wenxin Orchids. It is almost guaranteed that visitors will succumb to the beauty of these shoe-shaped orchids.

3. Amu Forest Exhibition (Dongshih Forest District Office of the Forest Bureau)
Exhibition Theme: Documentary photos and relics from the forests are presented at this exhibition. Interactive games have also been designed to help visitors learn more about our forests.
Coupons and Gifts:
1) Fill out a questionnaire to join a lucky drawing to win a hotel room in Baxianshan (double room on weekdays).
2) Fill out questionnaires and you will get a certificate of participation for the survey. With this certificate, , you ca win T-shirts if you spend a night at Baxianshan Hotel.

4. Happy Farming Villages Exhibition (Soil and Water Conservation Bureau Taichung Office)
Exhibition Theme: A total of 31 different farming communities and their beautiful scenery are introduced in this exhibition, allowing visitors to experience the bliss and beauty of these areas.

5. Incredible Fern Exhibition (Seed and Seedling Management Department)
Exhibition Theme: Hundreds of fern and other plant species will be displayed at this exhibition to raise awareness about endangered eco-systems and natural resources that are being depleted, in order to advocate public energy saving and carbon-footprint reductions.

6. Healthy and Beautiful Farming (Seed and Seedling Management Department)
Exhibition Theme: Safe means of fertilizer and pesticide applications for healthy and beautiful farming.
Recreational Agricultural Exhibition Plan

7. LOHAS Promoting Group: Farmers associations of Dongshi, Xinshe, Taiping, Dajia, Heping and Shigang districts
Exhibition Theme: Multi-media exhibition, six recreational-farming themed exhibitions, guided tours, information area, and DIY experience area.

8. Colorful Taichung 2011 Taichung International Flower Carpet Festival (Taichung City Government)
For more information about all of these events and activities, visit the official website: www.tcflower.com.tw

Parking Lot Locations:
The parking lot for private cars is located south of the flower-display areas.
Directions for Small Vehicles:
(1) From the direction of Shigang and Dongshi, take Xingzhong Street >> Xiexing Street >> turn right at Miaopu Bridge >> turn onto the farm road next to the canal and continue to the site.
(2) From the directino of Shigang and Dongshi (Dongxing Police Station) take Xingshe Street >> turn left at Xiexing Street >> continue on Huafeng Street tothe site.